Singapore is a highly developed and prosperous country with a high standard of living. According to World Happiness Report 2022, Singapore arguably had an environment well set up for happiness, with strong economy, low level of crime and corruptions, well-supported and developed healthcare as well as education system. Average over 2019 to 2021, Singapore was ranked as the 2nd Asia’s happiest nation just behind Taiwan, while ranking as the 27th happiest nation in the list of World’s Happiest Countries. However, are Singaporeans really happy? Why, then, do they still have more negative sentiments (worry, sadness, anger) than the positive ones (laughter, enjoyment, and doing or learning something interesting), based on both the result of the World Happiness Report 2022 and at personal level?
Jubiland: Rework Happiness is a research-based design project and thought-provoking initiative that invites audiences to rethink what really matters in cultivating happiness through play and activities in an exhibition setting. The project intends to address the challenges of finding happiness, raising awareness in the value of qualitative relationships, the importance of pursuing meaningful goals, as well as re-evaluate how to consistently nurture and sustain happiness.
In line with the recent pandemic, physical visual art exhibitions have been translated online for the sake of social distancing and the prevention of intermingling. Due to time constraints from the urgency of the matter, many translations of physical to digital exhibitions are completed in haste, resulting in the loss of physical experience when viewing an exhibition.
Deconstruction Reconstruction is a project that investigates the conditions that are considered when making a physical exhibition digital; comparing it to the considerations of creating a digital exhibition that was conceived as fully digital. In line with this process, the project aims to analyse the loopholes when exhibitions are shifting digitally and explore the significance of this phenomena. This inquiry also looks at the exhibition catalogue – also known as the exhibition’s legacy, and what happens when digitalisation changes the use and preservation of the exhibition catalogue.
The project also differentiates the virtual exhibition and the use of a catalogue. It reads into literature that looks at the various forms of virtual exhibitions and the use of the exhibition catalogue. Conclusively, it aims to integrate and understand the use of digitisation and the exhibition catalogue and finds contemporary case studies of virtual exhibitions and catalogues that hold true to these writings.
Migrant workers are often reduced to be being seen as unskilled workers whose presence are transient. They often receive unjust treatment from some members of the society. Perhaps, there are more can be done to mitigate this misconception, and to create more empathy towards migrant workers through art.
“More than Unskilled” explores the hopes, pain and aspirations of migrant workers in Singapore through their artistic works. Through a contextual understanding and investigation of a sketch artist, a poet and a music band’s creative making process, the project aims to challenge the perception of migrant workers in Singapore of their ‘unskilled’ façade to individuals with aspirations, talents and dreams.
